#MeToo: GoM meets, Maneka bats for reforms

New Delhi, December 10

The Group of Ministers constituted last month to look into issues arising out of the MeToo campaign met here on Monday with Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi pushing for stronger institutional mechanisms to address the complaints.

The meeting was attended GoM head and Home Minister Rajnath Singh and members Maneka Gandhi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari did not attend it. The WCD Ministry, the nodal ministry for all women-related issues, is learnt to have placed a proposal to the GoM to strengthen the National Commission of Women to deal with complaints of sexual harassment at workplace.

The GoM acknowledged gaps in the law as the reason why several women took to social media, starting October to November this year, to out men who had exploited them from power positions.

MJ Akbar, outed by 22 women, had to resign from the Council of Ministers and is now fighting a defamation suit against Priya Ramani, the first woman who publicly named Akbar as her assaulter.

The GoM will study the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act 2013 to plug legal loopholes, besides creating stronger mechanisms for redressal. — TNS